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Setting B2B Marketing Goals for 2017

With the new year approaching fast, you’re no doubt currently looking at your budgets, goals and objectives for 2017. But is it enough to simply have a rough idea of what you want to achieve over the next 12 months? Of course not. The most successful organisations are experts at setting goals, continually monitoring their status, and learning from their past experiences. And with the help of the following suggestions, you will be too. So, start by looking at your performance in 2016 so far. What worked and what didn’t? What challenges arose, and how did you overcome them? As the old saying goes, ‘those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it’.

Existing goals

As mentioned, a successful future is dependent on a thorough review of the past. So, before you can start setting goals for 2017, you first need to analyse your goals from this year – and scrutinise your performance. To ensure this investigation is as exhaustive as it needs to be, start by writing down your existing goals. In addition to this, add the targets which you hoped to achieve as part of these goals. For example, the goal was to increase your revenue by 50% and your target was 8 new customers. Now, write down what you actually achieved, and what percentage this was of the original target. In the previous example, the ideal result would be 10 customers gained and 125% of target achieved. But, whatever the outcome, just make sure you provide honest information and identify where improvements could be made.

Set new smart goals for 2017

Following on from previous results and taking the findings into account, it’s time to set your goals for 2017. Now, saying you want to grow your business or generate more leads is a nice idea. However, without effective planning, you’re unlikely to reach your goals. So, when it comes to choosing your goals, ensure that you use the SMART system. This involves creating objectives which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. By using this methodology, you can be sure that your plans are fully incorporated, easy to monitor, and more manageable. With regards to monitoring your performance, how do you expect to do this? Here’s an idea…

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

If you set a goal, disregard it for 12 months, then return to see if you succeeded, then the likelihood is that you won’t have. Achieving your goals and objectives take hard work and regular monitoring of performance. The best way to measure this performance, of course, is with KPIs. These helpful little metrics enable you to see if you are above or below your target at any given time. For example, your business plans to add 24 more clients over the next year. To make this more manageable, you set yourself a KPI of 2 new customers every month. This means that by May, you should be expecting to have already added 10 new clients. If you’ve not, then you know you are under target and there’s more work to be done. By working to each little bite-size objective, you are ultimately on course to achieve your wider business goal.

Get planning…

If you’re in the process of setting your lead generation goals for 2017, then make it easier by using our helpful tool…